256 
JUNE, 1917 
FOREST AND STREAM 
SAILING THE OPEN CANOE 
III.—THE LEEBOARD AND THE STEERING PADDLE 
By JULE MARSHALL 
T HE canoe, as well as any other boat, 
to sail in any direction not directly 
before the wind must have some hold 
on the water. Everyone knows that things 
floating on the water will drift before the 
wind, barring the effect of tidal currents, 
and that the more area the object exposes 
to the wind, the faster it will drift. It is 
so with all sizes of crafts, especially in 
sailing. But when you want to sail, not 
only before the wind but at right angles to 
and even into the wind—the most fascinat¬ 
ing part of sailing—something more than 
buoyancy, more than gravity and more 
than balance is needed. It is got by means 
of an area beneath the water, parallel to 
the keel and presenting its edge to the 
water when the craft is moving forward. 
Now when the craft is subjected to side 
pressure—which ordinarily causes leeway— 
the submerged area presents its entire side 
surface to the water, preventing leeway 
and causing lateral resistance. 
There are three distinct ways of apply¬ 
ing such lateral resistance: by a keel, by 
a center-board or by a leeboard. All three 
have been worked out in countless patterns. 
Perhaps the leeboard should have been 
mentioned first, as it is by far the oldest of 
the three types. However, as we are deal¬ 
ing with the open canoe, we can first dis¬ 
pose of the keel and the center board very 
briefly. 
As was remarked in the opening article 
of this series, the open canoe is the craft’s 
highest type. It is expected, when one 
purchases or builds an open canoe, that it 
will hold safely its full carrying capacity 
in passengers or in freight and passengers; 
that it will go down the most furious 
mountain stream or mount the highest 
wave; that it can be used for hunting, for 
fishing, for pleasure paddling, for racing, 
for part of a night camp; that it can be 
freighted or carted or portaged or easily 
housed, and that it can be sailed. A sail¬ 
ing keel is practical only when permanently 
fixed. And so almost any of these uses 
would eliminate it, extending as it does a 
number of inches below the center of the 
boat and running nearly its full length. 
While a center-board is better than a 
keel on a canoe for many reasons, it must 
be housed, or arranged so that it will 
draw up into the canoe. This means a 
long slot cut through the bottom of the 
canoe, and a center-board trunk or casing 
which must be sealed against the water and 
braced within the canoe against the severe 
leverage on the board when the canoe is in 
action. Such a casing, with its braces, in 
the center of an open canoe, would be 
F" - 1 °° ) 
Water q-uard 
found utterly impractical for obvious rea¬ 
sons. The center-board, however, is ex¬ 
cellent in the decked types of canoes. The 
Radix or folding center-board has long 
since passed along: it will work well for 
a short time, but as soon as it rusts and 
bends and jambs, it will not work at all. 
The leeboard is the only practical “sub¬ 
merged area” for the open canoe under 
sail. It will not only help guide the canoe 
wherever you direct it, but can be put 
under water and out of water at will, or 
can be permanently removed. It not only 
allows the canoe its advantage of light 
draft in shallow waters and for beaching 
even when attached, but can be readily re¬ 
moved altogether. And it does not rob 
the canoe of so much value for other uses, 
as does the center-board or keel. The lee¬ 
board with its equipment is simplicity it¬ 
self. All that is really necessary is a cross 
piece or removable thwart laid on top of 
the gunwales and bolted to a thwart in 
the canoe, and a single board swung on a 
pin fixed into the end of the leeboard 
thwart. 
M ENTION of a single board will arouse 
many canoeists to debate. The con¬ 
troversy in regard to its superior¬ 
ity over the double type is still on. We 
favor the single board, believing it to be 
just as effective on the windward side as 
it is on the lee. It does not change the 
balance of the canoe no matter which side 
the board is on, and the area of lateral 
resistance is reduced only a very few 
square inches when the board becomes a 
windward-board, from the area produced 
when it is a leeboard. Also there is half 
the labor and expense in the making, and 
half the effort in operating, one board. 
We have seen staunch advocates of the 
double leeboards beating to windward in 
races, deliberately using first one board 
and then the other as windward boards. 
We have proven the efficiency of the one 
board to ourselves, by applying the method 
for finding the center of lateral resistance 
(described in the first article of this se¬ 
ries) to first one side of the canoe and 
then the other, finding the action on the 
9 ' 
LEE-BOARD 
canoe to be the same from both sides. 
Further proof is the fact that during the 
last year or two, every important trophy 
race for open sailing canoes held by the 
American Canoe Association and affiliated 
clubs, has been won by canoes carrying 
only one board. 
If the various patterns of leeboards 
were brought together, it would make a 
humorous collection indeed, barring a few 
exceptions. And strange to say, the lee¬ 
boards of all but two out of the sixteen 
best-known canoe manufacturers making 
sailing outfits, would be the worst of the 
lot. Some resemble huge spoons, others 
are like snow shovels, and most of them 
resemble least of all what they are sup¬ 
posed to be when in place. But there are 
two manufacturers, it should be added, 
who have followed diligently the develop¬ 
ment in canoeing for many years and ac¬ 
cepted the experience of others, and who 
have ideal equipment for sale. 
The average board is generally too short, 
too wide and too thick. Another bad fea¬ 
ture of stock boards is that they are per- 
